Remember the Kosovo war? If you’re under 30, it’s just a blip on the historical screen, one that has far less impact on your consciousness than the subsequent wars of the post-9/11 era – and yet it was an important milestone on the road to where we are today. It was...
Hiroshima Day 2014
Think of it as the true end of the beginning. Last week, Theodore "Dutch" Van Kirk, the final member of the 12-man crew of the Enola Gay, the plane (named after its pilot’s supportive mother) that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died at age 93. When that...
US Evacuation in Libya Shows Ill Effects of US Interventionism
The American foreign policy elite should learn something from the recent humiliating evacuation of the U.S. embassy in Tripoli, Libya – amid the chaos of tribal civil war in that country – but probably won’t. Since World War II, this bipartisan elite has thumbed its...
Robert S. McNamara and the Real Tonkin Gulf Deception
For most of the last five decades, it has been assumed that the Tonkin Gulf incident was a deception by Lyndon Johnson to justify war in Vietnam. But the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam on August 4, 1964 in retaliation for an alleged naval attack that never happened –...
Yazidis Dying of Thirst at Refuge; 415 Killed Across Iraq
Dismantling the Oath of Office
Every commissioned officer in the US military has taken an oath as a condition of military service. But what does this mean? The text of the oath is very specific, but what about its practical application? What are the implications if those who take the oath are asked...
Trapped, Bloodied, and Besieged in the Gaza Strip
For a month now, the Palestinian territory of Gaza, one of the most densely populated places on the planet, has again come under heavy attack by Israel and its U.S-funded military might. According to Israel, the military operation, referred to as "Protective...
The Rise of the Petroyuan and the Slow Erosion of Dollar Hegemony
For seventy years, one of the critical foundations of American power has been the dollar’s standing as the world’s most important currency. For the last forty years, a pillar of dollar primacy has been the greenback’s dominant role in international energy markets....
Fears of Yazidi Genocide Grow As over 450 Killed Across Iraq
Is Obama Really Adrift in the World?
For all the hands shaken and hamburgers eaten, President Obama has never quite shaken his reputation for detachment. He is the “cool” president who doesn’t lose his temper even when he should. He is the former constitutional law professor who is too “academic” for the...


